((It's a BIG chapter, bois. 9358 words!))

Ganz grimaced as the waves of magenta light sliced through the soldiers, pushing them back so that the Varden could swarm them and maim them. Mel flashed a wicked grin in response, fading in and out as he inflicted memories of pain against humans who could not grasp it's magnitude.

The screams were no easy thing to listen to, so he never pitted himself against them unless forced to. He hated being the cause of so much suffering, the magenta spirit with his face finding catharsis in the agony.

In the distance, he could see lights flash as other skeletons fought with far fewer inhibitions, unleashing power that clearly wasn't meant to be a part of Alagaësia against humans that could not help their situation.
It sickened him how his kind could do this without care.

An abrupt screech startled him from his thoughts, Mel stilling to look over the buildings with uncharacteristic dread.
"What was that?" He called to no one in particular, leaping onto a bone attack to join the spirit.
His shoulders fell.
"Oh no.."
"Oh no indeed, brother." A familiar voice hissed.

He turned, praying he was wrong, only to see an unmistakable figure striding out among the now slain corpses of his former allies, sharpened attacks turning to dust that drifted from the bodies.
"What do you think you are doing? What did I tell you last time?"

"Papyrus, you're wrong! I am telling you, he lied to you! Please-" "Enough of this! I told you what would happen if I found you still supporting this lost cause!" His sockets flared in orange, an array of attacks appearing behind him.
"You will never have the best interests of monsterkind in mind, will you?"
Ganz went cold.
"Paps, that's not-" A sharp bone cut him off, crunching against the cobblestone.
"You do not get to use that name."

The flock of attacks abruptly descended, forcing him to teleport to a nearby roof, sockets wide.
His brother was trying to kill him.
Mel was scowling hatefully, invisible to all else and flickering to him.
"Let me fight him."
"No. He's my brother, Mel."
"He denounced you! Don't worry, I don't plan on killing him."
"You won't hurt my brother. I won't let you."
"But he can hurt you?"

An orange beam tore through the house and he was forced to teleport to another one, watching his brother spin to locate him furiously.
"It's what I have to do." He hissed under his breath.
"It isn't. Never was! You KNOW this! You are better than this. WE are better than this."
"I won't be like Him. I'm not a weapon, Mel! Stop trying to make me like one!" He snapped at the spirit. Mel didn't reply, scowling with crossed arms.
"How many times must we have this song and dance?"

"I preferred when you hid like the coward you are, Sans." GZ spat with disgust, rising on a bone with still more behind him.
"Did the isolation drive you mad?"
Ganz backed to the other side of the building, tense.
"Stop. You don't want to do this."
"Oh I do. With all you have cost us for your own pathetic philosophies over a race that slaughtered our people? Fools like you belong as dust in the snow!" He bellowed.

As the Blasters fired and bones shot forward, a pink blur materialized into a shield, similarly glowing bones tearing through the roof to protect him.
When the grey dust cleared, GZ blinked in surprise at the intangible colored copy of his brother scowling at him.
"You don't get to talk to my host like that."

"What are you?" He asked in disgust, stepping back from the crumbling edge of the house.
"Mel.." "I am the darkness created by you. And OUR father. You think putting violence and Determination into a monster simply leaves them stronger? No. It made me. And I like my little pure Soul host. I will kill and maim and destroy anyone who dares take him from me." His voice grew more present as he continued, rippling and gleaming harshly.

He pointed an intangible bone at the Papyrus.
"I am sick of you. You can't even begin to comprehend what your 'brother' sacrificed to protect you. To protect the innocent. To give you the best life possible, protect you from our.. creator. And now you demean him and spit on his name. No. No! Hah! Hahahaha! No more! This is a war! You want violence?! I WILL GIVE YOU VIOLENCE."

Ganz only had time to throw out a hand when the spirit turned on him, launching a blind array of ribs before Mel had already passed through.
"No no no no no no no no!" His voice cracked and twisted before he fell to his kneecaps and screamed, magenta sparking along his bones and coloring the streaks of his face. GZ stood back, intrigued and unafraid. Arrogant as he watched.

Finally he rolled his skull around, eyelights a harsh magenta, the same color practically bleeding from his markings.
The slightly echoey voice sneered. "I'm going to make you regret that attitude of yours."
"You can't even withstand so much as a brush against an attack." GZ scoffed, unimpressed.

With a flash, he was standing with his entire form covered in a layer of light. "Oh really?" Was the only warning before he vanished. GZ scowled and turned, looking for where the runaway had gone.

Immediately he was tossed from the roof, sharp bones sticking from his backside before he flipped and landed on his kneecaps, wincing.
There was no time, he was forced to roll as a Blaster fired, missing him by inches as the heat crisped his gloves and ignited the end of his scarf.

He put out the blaze and cast his gaze about, on guard as he searched for the invisible attacker.
He stumbled as a ribcage and spine erupted from the ground and clamped around his boot.
He stomped it until it was dust and ducked from an approaching attack only for his sockets to widen as a second aimed from the front and crashed into his face.

"Show yourself!" He screamed in rage, casting about with an array of attacks above him.
"Why would I do that?" A sadistic echo of his brother's voice whispered directly next to him, inciting him to pulverize the street to his side. The voice continued at his other side.
"You murdered children without a care for their families!"

Slam. He stumbled forward and swiped out behind him, only swinging at air.
"You are everything humans believe our kind to be." This time the force struck much harder and he crashed into a wall.
"You revel in this fear! I can taste it!"

This time his gloved fist connected and he could hear the grunt and stumbling feet.
He spun with rage and fired every attack he could in that one spot.
GZ then went stiff as a cold, tingling breath whispered beside his skull.
"Missed me.~"

He yelled, swinging a bone sword around only for a well placed attack to snap his sword arm. The shout cut off with a yelp, clutching the break with a grimace.
"I don't even have to use my full strength! You're so pathetic! Your arrogance makes you weak!"
"You are the one hiding in the shadows like a coward!"

The possessed skeleton reappeared then, a malicious grin on his face as pink flames spurted on his breath, dripping an incandescent fluid from his teeth as his entire form gleamed. The fluff of his hood was sending up pink embers, shifting around like slow moving flames.
"I thought you hated this face." He quipped.

He sneered at that, before hurling nearly a hundred attacks from behind.
"It's so I can watch you dust!" He screamed when his other arm was abruptly snapped, the other holding the attack in hand before winding up for a punch.

GZ ducked, rolling as the fist crunched into stone, leaping to his feet as he managed to finish healing his arm, the other having been snapped so cleanly he had to hold it in his hand. He sent a Blaster to pulverize the ground, spinning it around in wild hopes of hitting his target.

After a few long seconds of melting rocks and charring houses he stopped, panting as he healed. There was nothing but blackened trenches all around his patch of rock, smoke rising as the buildings began to burn.
"You're getting desperate now?"

He refused to turn around this time, sending a dozen spikes at the sound of the voice.
"What are you?!" He hollered.
"Would your worst nightmare answer your question?" The spirit replied, laughter in his voice.
"I want an honest answer!"

Chuckling, they reappeared, skull tilted in amusement.
"Alright. You deserve to know as much. Your brother's screaming enough as it is- he'll see what I'm doing soon enough." He paused, then slowly let his sockets slide half shut.
"How's the arm, bro?"

GZ bit back a grimace as it fully snapped back into place. He was going to need food after this.
"Already healed." He boasted.
Tilting his skull to the other side, the spirit huffed in amusement.
"I am just a collection of the excess Determination and magic from when our 'father', as you like to think of him, kept forcing more and more of the stuff into his system. Of course, he only cooperated to protect you from the agony that came with it."

He vanished as a series of attacks stabbed at the ground where he had been.
"I was given form from desperation and pain." He continued, unperturbed.
"I started like a creeping infection, poisoning others when his own lack of hope could no longer result in dying. Too much Determination. Too much hate that wasn't his own. That is what I am. I am neither monster nor human, but a product of said powers. Maybe I'm a parasite? HAH! Why should I care?"

He teleported into GZ's face, snarling as his hand gripped the taller's neck vertebrae.
"You made all his sacrifices mean nothing. Every step of the way. From your innocence to the lives of lost children, you undid everything in your arrogance. You call him a failure when it was you who actively destroyed every single thing he did to the point that he left our universe altogether for someplace better!"

GZ was unable to move, having reached to grab the other when the fluff of the hood had wrapped around his arm, sending needling pain coursing through him.
"And still you followed. Still you take the wrong side, because your ego and greed rule you. It's so easy to fool you. You fell for a mad king's lies. Have you ever wondered what his most loyal allies have done? Do you even question what their hobbies are? What their goals are? Maybe you should, Papyrus. Trust me. I have witnessed Hate before. I know his power. He is not on your side."

He threw GZ aside, the other gasping as the terrible, horrible pain subsided.
"Before I leave, know this: the only reason I have spared you is because your brother loves you. He still loves you too much. And furthermore, my name is Mel, short for Melancholy. Not even Nightmare himself could subdue me. It would be good for you to ask who that is from Hate. He knows. I know he does."

Mel turned and strode away, GZ staring after him in disbelief, straining to get his paralyzed body under control.

. • ° ° • .

Horror was grimacing, struggling against the sizzling cyan spear with his axe, all his spirits occupied by his regrettably awakened fell counterpart, raving ghosts thrashing mostly terrified ethereal monsters, the most aggressive of his spirits targeting HF himself.
Meanwhile, Undyne was pressing down on him with a face of pure concentration.
"Sans." She growled.
"Bitch." He shot back.

"I'm not here to throw names, alright?!" She hissed, hair matted.
"Yeah, yer here to kill me. You missed your chance years ago."
"I'm supposed to kill you." She snarled, disengaging to leap back and avoid his immediate swing. They began to circle, ringed by a writhing wall of phantoms.

"I don't suppose you can't just kill that fuckin' copy over there?" Horror snipped, phalanges twitching on the handle.
"I can't." She responded with far less venom than before, daring to shoot a look at the alternate that was cackling maliciously.
"I've just-" She huffed, throwing an easily predictable pattern at Horror, who dodged while suddenly tense.
Those were casual patterns, not something that would appear in a fight to the death.
"The fuck you want?" He growled.

She held her spear to the side, holding herself up on it.
"The castle is big, Sans. So's the dragon. The damn thing is bigger than all of Waterfall."
Horror was silent, taking in her words while biting back his own hateful thoughts.
"You broke me, Undyne." He said instead.
"You accused me of something no one would ever conceivably do. You tried to punish my brother. He thought you were a friend, Undyne. And you kicked in his FUCKING TEETH!"

He snarled after that, adjusting his grip on the axe, a myriad of spirits turning to stare silently at the fish lady. She grimaced under the helmet, hefting up her electric spear.
"I know, I fucked up. I really fucked up. I just- damnit, I was angry! Asgore was like a dad to me and his ex wanted to forgive and I couldn't-"
She cut off, gripping the spear.

"That has nothing to do with what you did to the rest of us." Horror said through gritted teeth.
Undyne studied him from under her helmet.
"... You're right." She sighed. "It took me a stupidly long time to realize that."

They stared at each other, neither really wanting to attack.
"I.. know where you got those helpers from." Undyne finally said, flicking a finger to the still battling spirits. Horror flashed his fangs. "Having your skull broken in fucks with your psyche. You figure that shit out from the angry copy?"
"Yeah. He only talks when threatened, though."
"Well he's an angrier version of me. His world's always been kinda kill or be killed."
"Is that what happened to you? Just.. left the universe entirely?" Undyne asked.

Horror scowled. "He promised food for Paps; we were at our fuckin' limit. I was already the human definition of monster, why not lean into it?" He gestured broadly.
Undyne just stared at him, as if trying to understand him.
"I heard about him. After the Multiverse crap."
"S'not so cool when it's no longer anime, isn't it?" Horror asked, tilting his skull.
"No. It's not. It makes no damn sense."

He scoffed, looking to the side to squint at the hysterically laughing HF. Undyne glanced over as well, disgusted by the alternate.
"What are the versions of me like?" She asked.
Horror blinked, straightening. "What, can't ask your friends? Or are you afraid they'll execute you?"
"Galbatorix might." She spat hatefully.

"Why did you join him?" Horror asked instead.
"I didn't know what to do! There were humans everywhere and only one of me! There was a giant dragon! He- fucking crawled in my head and made me say things that I didn't understand yet at the same time I did? Then I'm told all this shit. Trust me, I wish I was with you guys. The crap I've seen- it isn't right. It doesn't make sense. Humans don't make sense."

"He's insane, Undyne. There's no understanding insane. Trust me, I lived in it for a long time." Horror explained.
"How are you better, anyway? For that guy the little demon kid thing used that weird death scythe and some healing that felt wrong."
"Entropy, huh? Reaper 'll be pissed to know she fucked with that thing."
"Reaper?"
"Maybe you've heard him called Death. I dunno the shit happenin' in Urû'baen."
"I don't get told anything at this point."

Horror snickered. "Sucks to be you, then." He then paused, glancing at the destruction that had moved into the sky. Error and 404 were setting the sky on fire.
"Y'know, not to be the bearer of bad news, but after this it's likely Galbatorix will put you under more severe oaths."
"What."
"He did it to Murtagh. You're valuable to him. Can't have you betraying him and all that."
"I'm not going the fuck back, then!" She cried, appalled. "He doesn't need to know anything!"

"He can break into that scaly head of yours and read your memories like a goddamn book, Undyne. You really thought we could have a friendly conversation and you go back empty-handed? Murtagh did that and I'm sure the result for him wasn't pretty. The poor bastard." He spun his axe before softening.
"Tell him it won't be long now, will ya?"

"What do you mean?" She tensed, gripping her spear.
"What, you don't feel it?"
"Feel what?"
"Wyrda. It's.. been pulling on all of us. It can't be changed. It tells some of us more things than others." His sockets widened. ".. Have you.. felt it?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Undyne asserted, narrowing her singular eye.

Horror frowned, debating what to say.
"Since this is the only time…" He scowled, stepping forward. The fish lady stepped back, spear raised, on guard.
"Dragons, Undyne. They have Souls that last outside their bodies in a physical form. He stole his strength from their Souls. With that power, he rivals gods. Real gods, not seven-Souled. Look at Shruikan. That was never his dragon. He is a slave to Galbatorix."

"Sans, I don't know what you guys are planning, but if he has that much power, you better have something big."
He simply spread his arms. "All I can say is we have more gods and Unity on our side. I don't know the exact outcome, I just know what the Fate of Alagaësia has been saying. And it says he will die soon."
"How soon?" She pressed.

"I don't know. It's never been exact. But we knew Ajihad would die and Nasuada would take his place. We felt that Hrothgar was going to die as well, and Murtagh. Murtagh killed him. And before all that, we felt that Galbatorix was going to die. Do you understand? No matter what, nothing can change Fate, whether it's that bitch in control of the Multiverse or the mindless force that is Alagaësia's."

"In control of- what does that even mean?" Undyne was bewildered. Horror scoffed, looking away. "The reason why we all suffered as we did. The reason Ink is always creating too many universes, the reason Error was forced to become the Destroyer…. If 404 is willing, I'm sure that psycho will tell you all about Fate. I've heard she created him. If not him, Hate has to know. He's got to. He's connected to Nightmare."

"I- fine, whatever, forget it. Just. Why do you follow him? The real answer. You can literally teleport, why didn't you just take your brother and leave us? I know you wanted to."
Horror squinted at her.
"Because as bad as home is, I was promised enough food to feed Snowdin, and our hellhole is still so much safer than many other things in the Multiverse. Nightmare saved us, and then he became family."

"I thought he was-" "You don't know even half of it. Just because he was Negativity didn't make him inherently evil. He became that way because humans accused him of what you're calling him now. We all had a shitty run of things, and together we just leaned into it for the sake of the Multiverse. Why not? At first, our lives couldn't really get worse! Then Cross came and just.. made everything change. But that's a different story."

He pointed his battle-axe at her. "You broke me, Undyne. You made me insane for a long damn time. But if you hadn't, I wouldn't be where I am today. I would still be broken, and everyone here would still be asleep. So I was nice enough to chat."

They stared at each other for a little while, before she dared speak in a weak tone.
"How? ….How did you do this to them? Make them ghosts."
Horror huffed out a cloud of mist, studying her faintly glimmering eye.
"I ate them, Undyne." He answered softly.
"I thought you knew."

"He didn't say anything beyond taking Souls." She mumbled, waving at HF who had spun off into a furious engagement with Dust further up the street.
Horror scoffed. "Of course he would."

He blinked at her, trying to recognize the Undyne from so long ago. Fierce, loyal, brash. That past seemed to have disappeared long ago.
"It started because I was hungry and things weren't alright up here." He gestured to his iconic hole. "Maybe even hours after you did me in. It started with Moldsmols. Thought they were snails at first for some reason. Then I just snapped."

He chuckled darkly. "Established Snowdin as separate from your bullshit, then it was a cat that threatened to tattle." He glanced to the side. "I'm surprised you forgive me for that."
The grey silhouette shrugged. Undyne stared at it in shock.

"Either way, from Denny, things just started to slowly escalate. Apparently we don't dust when our Souls are ripped out- at least, not for a while. I used that to keep Snowdin going, which turns out that changes people. I was real fucked up." He grinned morosely, not meeting her gaze. She was staring in revulsion, though he didn't see it.

"Somewhere along the line something changed. I could feel them. Snowdin was starting to collapse without food, most of it came from hunting and foraging. That's when it turned from just getting folks fed to saving them."
"How is that saving them?"
"I could feel them, 'Dyne." He levelled his gaze on her.

"I could feel them. They were alive. Asleep, but alive. They weren't hungry anymore. That meant more than anything else to me then. They weren't hurting anymore. I was trying to save them. And even if I tried, I couldn't stop. I was always hungry, it got worse and worse and I kept going and going- folks were eating themselves by the time Nightmare appeared, but I could never stop it."

He glanced to the side. "There are so many horrible universes out there, Undyne. We are not some kind of Ultimate Hell. We are just a hollow purgatory. There are alternates of us who could beg for death yet never escape. There are copies of sheer misery that were going to be destroyed that I just.. couldn't stop myself. But you know what? It's all fine now. They're happy. They are so fucking happy now. So it all did mean something. I could make a difference in a way that makes you cringe, but it was how they got the chance to live lives they couldn't have imagined."

Ghost shimmered into existence beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder. Horror blinked and peered at him.
"It's alright. You're scaring the kiddos."
Horror huffed out mist and rubbed his free gand over his face, sighing.
"I get caught up in the past sometimes." He explained.

"Look." Ghost started, glancing at Horror in concern. "What do you want with us? Why are you asking all these questions? Last time we saw you, you were trying to kill us."
"I wasn't trying to kill you." She argued, puzzled.

Ghost rested his hand on Horror's shoulder.
"You were going to kill us. You were lucky there were so many soldiers on that battlefield. You were lucky the rest of his AU is terrified of you. They're the most vicious fighters I've ever seen. Granted, I don't have a ton of experience on the matter, but they are a special kind of savage."

"Wait, you're a copy too." Undyne realized.
"A less offensive term is alternate." Ghost pointed out, crossing his arms.
"You ate other versions of yourself?" Undyne questioned in disbelief.
"For good reason." Horror pointed out.
"Me and my bro were literally melted together." Ghost asserted. "And we couldn't even die when our Undyne tried to put us out of our misery."

She took a step back, mortified. "How-"
"Determination." Horror answered, patting Ghost gently. "His brother fell down, so he took him to Alphys for help. She could only adjust the dosage of Determination and hope it wouldn't melt them like it did the Amalgamates. It didn't work out."
"No sirree, we were just like those conjoined siblings humans have!" Phantom appeared to lift up his brother from behind.

Horror was about to speak when a figure leapt down from above, landing smoothly and standing up with a grin.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Queen Fish Bitch." Killer stated, twirling a blade.
"What did you just call me?"

"Leave it, Killer. She isn't fighting." Horror ordered. Killer blinked, turning to peer at him.
"Who are you and what have you done with Horror?"
"Har har." He rolled his eyelights, gaze resting on Ghost, who was now carried under the arm of his own brother.

"How'd you get him to talk?" Killer suspiciously cast over to the fish lady, who adjusted her grip on her weapon. "I just talked to him, alright?!"
"Right. How many AU's did you kill their Undyne, Horror?"
"That's not important right now." Horror sighed.
"Yeah no, she fucked you up. She attacked your brother. I'm not trusting her with a damn thing."

"Look, I'm aware I screwed up, but please listen to me when I-" A blinding flash arched from the sky and crashed into the ground inches from her, carving a long furrow in the earth. Rocks were thrown into the air, dirt blown several feet away.

A pale hand and dirtied white sleeve reached out, clasping the edge of the crater and dragging its owner into the light. 404 scowled, a guttural snarl leaving him as he leapt forward and launched back at Error, who was awaiting for him on a Blaster.

"Shit I wasn't expecting that." Killer whispered, wiping dirt from his sleeves.
Undyne shook herself like a dog, spraying dirt from her armor before she brushed the rest off her scales. "We can't stay here."
"We shouldn't even be talking. It's a warzone right now." Ghost pointed out.

"And we're still on opposing sides." Horror added.
"That's never really stopped anyone before." Ghost interjected.
"This time it's a problem. Wars of this scale are different. Alagaësia is different. Everything is different. Just go, Undyne. If it's talking you want, it has to wait until this war is done."
"But you said he'll-"
"Put you under oaths. Yeah. So you better start talkin' to Murtagh."
"He's a hu-" "Shut up."

She blinked at him.
"You're in Urû'baen. I've seen plenty of Galbatorix without ever even seeing the damn city. How haven't you seen that he's what you gotta be worrying about? What Frisk did to us isn't a reflection of humanity. It's an aspect. It's been so damn long, Undyne. Has it never occurred to you that Frisk was a stupid kid who didn't have a full grasp of consequences? We're just one fucked up ending. They got away with probably trauma and a lack of understanding of what happened. That's not even the worst ending."

He stepped closer, around the trench. "I learned to accept what happened. I'm over it. That's why I decided to talk to you despite what you've done to me." He explained before gesturing to Killer, who had gone silent. "Do you wanna explain what could have happened to her?"

"...No. I don't want to talk about that. You tell her." He replied distantly, Soul shivering in a target shape as he averted his lightless sockets. Horror turned on the fish lady.
"Frisk could have been much worse. They could have started killing us from the very beginning until every last one of us was dead. Then they could have undone everything just to kill us again. And again. And again. And before you go asking, yes that's possible. It's called Reset. And it's been used to cause so much pain throughout the entirety of the Multiverse, and the worst part? We remember. Every single AU, an alternate of me is stuck remembering everything that happens. All because of the way Dad died and didn't die. It's a hell you can't even begin to imagine."

He stepped back to breathe for a moment, then continued. "Frisk could have committed genocide on us, even you, over and over until I fucking snapped. That's the short version of what happened to Killer."
Said skeleton nodded emptily.

"Or they could have been more sadistic and killed us AND saved us all over and over again without end- until nothing matters but finding a way to end the unending cycle- and Dust did that by killing everyone himself and then killing the fucking thing his Frisk became. And you know how I know we could have been the same? Because we are. Killer, Dust and I aren't like the rest of the Multiverse. Me, and you are direct timelines of the original universe. There's not some major alteration in the coding of our existence, the only difference is events played out differently." He smiled, but it was more of a grimace. Undyne was rooted in place, bewildered and unable to comprehend.

Then a black mass appeared on the ground, bubbling into existence until it rose up, a twisting spire that divided into a vague bipedal shape behind Horror. Then the ends of it's stubby arms elongated into white bone and hands with holes in the middle, a pale, mask-like cracked face appeared and rose up until a tall figure was solidified. Slightly malformed sockets squinted at Undyne before a hand rested on Horror's shoulder.

He jumped, starting to swing his axe behind him before realizing who it was. Killer jolted, but didn't attack either.
".. What.. is that."
"Long story short, that's Dad." Killer explained, pointing with a knife.
"Huh? You're- you're dead?" She phrased it like a question.

"To put it simply, I was for all intents and purposes, dead. However, I was actually almost entirely erased from existence and lost in the Void. There isn't any easy way out of there, but I have found a way to at least escape into Alagaësia." The scientist spoke matter-of-factly.

"You're- his dad?" She confusedly indicated Killer.
"Yes. I am also his father." He dared faintly smile down at Horror even as the other looked away.
"What?"
"It's because I was removed from the timeline so long ago. It split into several branches but did not include me. Therefore, while my sons ended up becoming multiple selves due to changing worlds, I did not. So I now have eight children while they all have the same father. Do you understand that?" His face twitched in complex emotions before Horror frowned.
"Who all are you including there?"

"Every single timeline." Gaster proclaimed with pride.
"Omega hates us." Killer pointed out drily.
"You assume much. He doesn't hate you. Oh, what timing." He looked up as a tremendous creature leapt from one roof over the street and onto another, trailing blue and orange flames from his maw and sockets.
"Oh shit." Killer stated before the building next to them exploded.

Everyone dove for cover as the plant/metal/goat beast crashed through, grimacing and shaking as he chased the far lighter one, thorny tails whipping about and gouging into nearby structures.
"I hate you! Just die already or something!" He bellowed, his screen cracked.

Omega didn't reply, only parting his maw to fire a laser that the Flowey barely dodged. He hissed and launched vines at the skeletal beast as he dashed to the side, a ball of white light forming in the mandibles below his screen. Omega launched himself, barreling into the once flower. The pair of giants went rolling down the street, a flash of purple revealing an elongated Blaster hovering just above the rubble bearing the weight of both of them for a split second before they continued with their raging fight.

Gaster then appeared there, summoning large hands to dig out the rubble and reveal a disheveled and rather aggravated Killer, swearing as he was pulled to his feet.

It became quickly apparent that they could no longer stand around and chat when suddenly, an unrecognizable figure appeared, wearing an orange and black hoodie over his unnaturally black bones. He stared at Gaster, who blinked back in bewilderment.

"Who is that." Horror hissed at Undyne, who uneasily shifted in place.
"I don't know. He just calls himself Invert."
"Never heard of him." Horror shrugged, walking out to face the newcomer, knowing at least, that they were definitely on the opposing side.

The stranger hovered just off the ground, skull tilted to the side as they regarded each other. His eerie black eyelights looked like little voids in those glowing white sockets.
"What if I switched your hole around?" Came the glitched, freakishly warped voice.
Horror suppressed the urge to twitch at that disturbing suggestion.
"I'd rather ya didn't."
"You want blue lights? Go better with the jacket."
"No, I like 'em red now."

"Suit yourself." His right eyelight flared up orange with a hint of violet and he lunged, freakish black bones slamming into the ground. Horror dodged, summoning a Blaster as the other abruptly grabbed his Soul with blue- it was orange, the magic was orange and yet he was thrown at a crumbling wall.

Horror barely had the chance to twist around and land on his feet, put off by the warped, reversed magic- oh. The stranger was literally inverted.
So he just needed to figure out what that meant.
His Blaster fired, but the other formed a black skull, jaws parting to literally suck the beam away from it's target and into an orb, clamping shut and promptly exploding, sending shards flying.

"Okay." He heard Killer state in shock. "That happened."
"What the hell created you?" Horror asked.
The other shrugged, warping voice rising up. "A Void where up is down and black is white and nothing is everything."
"..Now there's a cryptic answer." He muttered.

Huffing mist, he allowed a wave of spirits to take form, billowing until the faint gleaming fractals of blue light settled and gave them a sort of tangibility. He stood there as they surged forward, screeching for blood.

Inverse tilted his skull, a glitch running down his body before he threw down his arm and summoned three black Blasters. Horror felt a sense of uncertainty at the other's confidence as the maws opened, the ghosts just feet away when it occurred to him.
Those weapons sucked things in.

The unnatural black light began to form and he felt a strange tug, several spirits cutting short as others abruptly stopped moving, the battlecry suddenly gone. Horror surged forward, throwing up his arm in a panic as the unease increased, the tug turning to pain and the echoing cries became screams.

He grabbed the other with blue magic and threw him towards the still intact wall on the right- yet Inverse instead flew to the left into a pile of ruins. A scream worked itself out of him as the freakish weapons kept vacuuming, voices screaming in terror as he teleported atop the first of them, slamming his axe into the top of the skull as a multitude of attacks targetted the remainders.

His Soul felt close to tearing itself apart, like pieces were being ripped from him, bones on fire with his proximity to the unholy attacks. He gasped as the first one's black eyelights flickered and went out, turning and slashing his axe at the jawbone of the next Blaster, rendering it inoperable as both started dusting away.

Horror then fell to his kneecaps atop the rapidly dissolving skull, twitching as he suddenly found himself paralyzed. His Soul was hammering, feeling every last piece he carried ripped free as voices he knew were inexorably dragged into the weapon.

With a flash, he spotted Gaster leaping towards it, body stretching out inconceivably into goop that splattered onto the skull before getting sucked into the vortex as well.
Before he could see more, the skull he was on collapsed in on itself and he fell through, unable to move himself as his Soul screamed.

At the last second he felt something wrap around him, saving him from a hard collision with the ground.
Horror twitched, unable to do much else as he glimpsed gold tinted leaves.
"Stay here." Cicállaé murmured. "This broken being is too dangerous for you."

He was left unable to speak, paralyzed as his core ached. Something above then exploded, and he felt a wave of heat wash over him as debris rained down, something wet splattering with it. Horror didn't dare release any other spirits out of fear of losing them for the sake of knowing what was happening.

The voices questioned him, confused, many afraid, two of them daring to exit the plane of his mind and be stricken with his suddenly onset paralysis.
Stop. He whispered. Don't look. I need to listen.

The newcomer to the ongoing battle he could hear wasn't someone that spoke, but a presence he could feel, the power seeping into his bones. He felt thin tendrils slip under him and lift him up, the bumpiness and telltale clinking telling him that they were chains.
"Take them back." A female voice whispered, familiar.
"The spirits that dwell in your Soul are yours alone, Horror. Take them. And protect them until they are yours no longer."

A cold hand pressed to his sternum, and suddenly a chill passed over him as a wave of panicking voices tumbled back into his mind, the oozing ache of his Soul suddenly fading, leaving but an echo as his limbs were suddenly functional again.

Horror jolted up with a gasp, grasping his shirt as the spirits sobbed, many racing to embrace others and simply cry with relief. He cast his gaze about and saw a woman of dark hair and glowing aquamarine eyes looking down at him. The not-human Abyss had turned into.
"..You."

The light faded from her eyes, leaving behind blue. Her countenance shifted, and she regarded him. "Don't ever let them attack an enemy you don't know. They are all parts of your Soul, not just within it. You could have died and taken all of them with you." She explained with more presence. "Got it?"

"Fine. Where the fuck is he."
Her expression shifted into understanding and she pointed through a path of destruction carved into several houses. "Be careful. He was formed of the unstable Anti-Void. Only glitches can truly understand. Only Error can know him."
"How do you know this?" He stood with aching bones and questioned.

She faced him, somber and serious.
"I remember everything forgotten and yet to be known."
"You gonna elaborate on that or..?"
"There's nothing to elaborate." She insisted. "I can look into you and see everything you have forgotten, everything you have felt and are feeling, every thought you have, every thought of the many Souls you hold inside-" She pressed her cold fingers to his sternum and he flinched.
"But I don't want to. I want.. I want to be normal." Her voice broke slightly.

"I remember what I wanted so desperately for so long. I remember that I had it at the cost of myself. Just. Go. Be careful." She stepped away, overcoat peeling off into familiar scarves that changed into wings. Horror gave her a searching look, then huffed mist and darted away, heading for the one that dared take away what was his.

. • ° ° • .

Geno hissed as he was thrown through a wall, clinging to the red, glitching threads that wrapped around him, digging into his ribs.
The rocks stopped crumbling and they dissolved into squares, dispelled by his own glitches.

He leapt back up, wincing at his broken fibula as he looked up at his twitching lookalike.
"I'm going to decapitate you with that fucking rope!" He snarled while flying up on an attack, swinging himself into a drop kick that caught the other off guard.

"¥øū wî$h." The other growled before swinging back up the deformed Blaster and firing it at once, forcing Geno to jump off his attack and land on the snout of the laser skull.
Fatal blinked, not expecting him to do that.

Geno smirked and punched him, wielding Hivtrfreohr in his other hand to slash across the other's ribcage, turning an oozing wound into a bleeding X. Determination sprayed from the cut, Fatal stumbling back as he wheezed, tearing a handful of dripping threads from his mouth, spitting.

Geno just slashed through those threads as well, finding gratitude in them being so fragile, unlike Error's. He kicked Fatal off the back of the Blaster, seeing the red and blue sockets widen before he fell, trailing similarly hued glitches.

A Blaster fired below as he hopped off in pursuit, spotting After among the still intact rooftops, focused solely on the glitch that resembled Geno.
There was an unnatural shriek as the broken one was struck, fizzling violently until he vanished.

Dropping down beside After, Geno checked him for injury. "You're okay?"
"I'm fine. Let's just focus on the Destroyer wannabe."
Scoffing, he looked around for the other. "He might be what Error could have been without Fate's intervention."
"I was told he was created because Error screwed around with a copy of us."
"He tried to give the copy a chance to kill himself. Something went wrong. That's all I know."
"Morbid."
"He was extremely uncomfortable with the concept of killing 'me', Paci."
"I guess that's fair?"

A deranged cackle sounded above them, drawing their attention upwards to see 404 on a Blaster in the air, looking at them like an excited wolf.
If the wolf were rabid, that is.

Dark blue strings descended around them, enclosing them in a cage as several more dragged up an unconscious and twitching Fatal.
"Error's favorite friends! I've wanted to meet you face to face! And both of you, too! What fun. This is so cool!" He landed in front of the pair, skull tilted a little too far to the side.

Geno stood in front of After defensively. "What do you want."
404 clapped. "Look at you! So protective! You're Reaper's favorite, that's for sure. Funny little family!" His face abruptly darkened and his strings were ripping their Souls into view. After stumbled as Geno grunted.
"Oh my goodness I was riiiight! You two are like little puzzle pieces! That's so fascinating!"

A malignant gleam entered his eyelights.
"What would happen if I just.." He tugged the two closer together. Both of them stiffened.
"Wait, don't, please don't." After begged.
"Don't you fucking try it." Geno hissed.
404 glanced between the two and their Souls, unimpressed.
"Honestly, I thought you'd try to dance a little more, but you two are boring."

He clenched his fist and the strings snapped together with little more than a yelp from both skeletons. An explosion of glitches burst forth from the point of contact, forcing the psychotic god back to the edge of the roof, the boxes jittering, appearing and disappearing in a dense cloud, codes floating up and jerking all over the place.

The grin on his face widened at the glitched scream that rose up from the city, knowing full well that Error was in agony. He could make out a vague form thrashing on the flat roof, barely visible through the sizzling glitches, a faint, broken scream cutting in and out as the other body lay completely prone.

404 turned away to peer through the pitiful city of Belatona to look for where Error had fallen when the glitching wail died down. He stepped off onto a Blaster to begin searching, already done trying to break the ones connected to the god of destruction- when a fist clamped around his spine through his clothes, gripping so hard it hurt.

He turned in panic to see something that reminded him of Fatal, white glitches as well as blue and red flickering all over the skeleton, a single eyelight blazing blue and red with sheer rage, liquid Determination beginning to well up in their parted jaws. They gargled the words.
"¥øü 宀 gôìπg +õ ₱ā¥ £ø® +hä+."

404 grinned excitedly. "This is new! I like i-" He was thrown to the side, the hand glitching until it was somehow gripping his neck vertebrae and the burning hot Determination was sprayed in his face. He coughed in disgust, reaching for his own strings when a literal sword removed his entire left and part of his right hand. The pain struck him at the same time as the realization that his hands were gone.

The shrieking echoed throughout the city as the white sword began stabbing him in and out, stealing his breath as his ribs were cut to pieces. He lay there in shock even as they backed away and summoned a ring of Blasters, the skulls twitching erratically as glitches danced across them.

A shadowy blur darted across and dragged him out of the way just as they fired, the child of void eyes dumping him on the ground to heal at his own glitched but unnatural pace.

Entropy turned on the new figure, wielding a scythe before being promptly thrown off the building by an enormous skeletal talon. Reaper was truly furious, eyelights sending pennants of flame twenty feet long, the air around him darkening with shadows, an entire portion of Belatona levelled by his tremendous form.

He bent over the figure, the same talon gently reaching out.
"Are you okay?" He asked in the softest voice he could manage in such an enormous body.
They simply glitched, shaking and coughing up Determination like blood.
"| ¢äπ'+- ī+ ßû®π$-" They slurred through the liquid in their mouth.

Reaper whined, casting about to find Error, spotting him crawling weakly atop a roof as glitches danced over his bones. His massive talon closed over the god and carried him over, depositing him on the same building.
"Help them." He pleaded softly before turning with a hiss at the figures that rose up.

Entropy was horrified, having never seen this in all the time she'd known the god.
"Fall back." She whispered.
"What?" 404 snarled, cradling his ribs as he glitched, arms shaking.
"Fall back." She spoke louder, moving away from the enraged giant.

A beak the size of a barge clamped shut in the space they had just occupied, titanic wings lifting up as shadows lengthened to near evening levels of darkness.
"FALL BACK!" Entropy screamed, the cry echoing as the god of death crouched down.

The first to reappear was the Flowey, bounding through the city as his many eyes stared at Reaper in horror, fleeing from the god's presence. Entropy and 404 then fled in opposite directions as Reaper leapt at them, roaring.

He was suddenly in flight, wings blotting out the sun as his enraged voice crowed.
"You think you can toy with my mortal, 404? The brothers of Destruction? We can obliterate puny gods like you. You are NOTHING."

A beam of black light wide enough to encompass an entire house darkened the sky with the sound of lightning, 404 teleporting out of the way in a panic. He was no longer laughing, instead bearing a look of fear on his face, turning and fleeing northeast, back to Urû'baen.

The others soon followed, but were dismayed to find the god pursuing them, tremendous wings beating with the sound like trees caught in an abrupt gale. The darkness deepened, baritone hum sounding from the raven beast, glaring after them hatefully.

Hate himself was left behind, red and black form shifting as he struggled to grow in size, thrashing erratically. Eventually he settled on something covered in massive spines and dense clawed feet to support its round, shell-like body, snake head emerging from it as he teleported over, clamping down on Reaper's trailing tail to interrupt.

The god barked out in surprise as his flight was cut short, dragging Hate forward before finally stumbling to the ground, turning to snap at the smoky being.

Hate slashed long claws at him, forcing Reaper to recoil and hiss. Hate's forelimbs suddenly elongated and he swiped a second time, only for the arms to be sliced off by a blade-tipped tail. He snarled, face shifting into something dragonish with teeth more suited for crushing than a serpent's.

Reaper lunged, roaring even as Hate mirrored. The two began thrashing about on blackened fields, plants withered under Reaper's touch, dead leaves flying into the air just to crumble.

Hate's jaws clamped around Reaper's wing and the god shrieked as the bones within crunched loudly. His tail stabbed through Hate's abdomen in retaliation, piercing through the other side and slicing upward.

The smoky entity choked on a howl, being rent apart. He dissolved into smoke before it could fully split him apart, drifting away around Death.
"404 will die for what he has done. This I promise!" Reaper bellowed, turning to glare at the black smoke drifting away from him in fury.
Hate had no response.

Reaper turned, his form shrinking as he galloped back to the city, leaving a trail of dead plants with each step. Quadrupedal bounds soon morphed to bipedal, then disappeared entirely as he took flight on much smaller wings.

He returned to see Geno sitting upright, tremors running up and down his arms as he stared at his clenching and unclenching fist. After wasn't far, laying flat on the deteriorating roof and staring dully at the sky, drained. Error was sitting crosslegged and leaning on his arms, sockets half-lidded.

The god of death flung himself at his beloved, wrapping the bloody glitch in his arms and silently embracing him.
"You're okay?" He murmured.
"...I think so." Geno mumbled, still out of it.
After tsked loudly from his position laying down.
"I still taste it in my mouth." He sat up and spat a reddish fluid and looked up. "Think I might melt soon?"

"It found a way out of your system through your mouth. You should be fine. Maybe close to Undyne's levels right about now." Error explained quietly, weariness in his voice.
It dropped to a whisper as he added. "It's been a while since I've felt pain like that."
"That bad, huh."

Error's mismatched eyelights drifted over. "I don't usually feel what's happening to you. I know when you're killed by your Chara, I know when either of you are really hurt, but it's distant. This was not distant."

"Error, our Souls were literally forced back together when they no longer belong that way." Geno pointed out hoarsely, shifting to lean into his lover.
"Paci can't even handle the Determination mine is constantly putting out."
"What did it feel like?" Error changed the subject, genuinely curious. "Besides the pain."

After shared a look with Geno, who's glitch fell away. "It.. I can't remember much besides how much it hurt. I felt his mind in mine like a bubble or something, and I could remember things that were your memories and I could specifically tell that much. But?" A hand drifted up to grasp at his shirt.
"It felt whole." Geno whispered with a thousand yard stare. Reaper hugged him worriedly.

Error gazed at the horizon where the enemy had fled, his face a mask. For a little while, there was nothing but the distant clatter of the Varden's armor as they secured what was left of the city, wings flapping as dragons assisted here and there as more buildings collapsed under their remaining walls, piles settling.

He then stood, striding over to After with a grim face. Said skeleton looked up at him, his usual nervousness entirely absent. Error sat across from him, pulling out strings as he spoke to both him and Geno.

"I don't trust that 404 won't try to do that again. As much as he just got scared today, he loves to cause chaos to rile up his enemies. Reaper, you just gave him ammo to use against you. As well as prove you're a serious threat to Galbatorix's power but you know that. I had an idea." He hesitated, staring at After until he found whatever answer he was looking for and gently tugged out the Soul.

He flinched, but otherwise let it happen, watching as Error carefully looped the blue threads through the gap and around.
"This should prevent him from doing it again. He can probably shove it on top, but not inside." Error explained softly.

"He can break your strings though." Geno pointed out.
"When I'm not expecting that." Error admitted leaning towards him. Reaper drifted closer, carrying the bloody glitch until they were in range.
"But I won't let him do that again. Will you?"
Geno brought out his small, jagged shard, looking on as Error gently took it in his hands and wrapped a blue thread around it, pulling it tight with a wince, Geno grimacing as After tensed.
"Sorry."

He finally sat back, letting the Soul and fragment return to where they belonged as his thoughts suddenly spoke in their minds.
Now I can keep better tabs on the both of you on top of that.
"...Asshole." Geno muttered.
Error threw up his arms. "You were both hurt! What do you want me to do? Neither of you should be hurt like that!"
"I can handle myself, he needs protection."
"You can still be killed! You shouldn't pretend you can't get hurt."
"And so can you! But you just throw your health to the side all the time!"
"Will the two of you quit it?!" After shouted.
Remarkably, both glitches fell silent.

He pinched his nasal cavity in frustration.
"Look. You both are just worried about each other and are the worst at showing it."
"It's iconic, really." Reaper added. After gave him a dry look but didn't comment.
"So please, for the sake of my sanity and the freaking Varden, will you stop arguing already?"

Geno scowled at Error, who glared back, but they both relented, god of destruction turning away in a sort of silent treatment. After snorted at the childishness of it, but otherwise was relieved to find the argument at an end.

"..I should be heading back to Daret." Error sighed when a few minutes had rolled by.
"Do you really need to?" Geno asked in a low voice. Error huffed. "Yeah, but I hate it. I just came because 404 showed up. He's not someone you wanna mess with."
"He's an evil copycat of you." Reaper snorted.

Error spun around, perturbed. "You saying I'm not already evil?"
The god of death gestured broadly. "Am I evil?"
"Course not."
"And you're not actively causing pain and suffering to please yourself, so neither are you."

He scoffed at the logic, standing and striding to the edge of the roof.
"He's right, you know." Geno called.
"I'm not- whatever. Doesn't matter." He tore a glitching portal into existence, shaking his skull and moving to step through. He only paused with one foot on the other side.
"Draco plans to fly here. He'll arrive before the Varden begins to march for Dras-Leona. I think GB really needs to hear that right now."
That being said, Error was gone.

"...If Draco's flying here, who's going to defend the elves from Thorn and Murtagh?" After pondered.
"...Well they do have Error." Reaper pointed out.
He only frowned, Geno's memories still flickering in his mind.
It was then that trumpets began to sound, echoing around the city.
"What now?" Geno groaned.